mackinaw

Northern Michigan has a lot of Big 3 retirees. Standing joke up here is that the only time they take their (fill in the blank of your favorite pickup truck) on a dirt road is on the first day of firearm deer season.

The aftermath of our 20" + snowfall.

A good question, and one of the reasons I'm leery of BEV's. We woke up this morning to 24" of snow. It's 17 degrees out right now. The power has stayed on (so far) but other parts of northern Michigan haven't been so lucky. This is a bad winter storm, but nothing out of the ordinary for this part of the state. I'd rather tackle a storm like this in a vehicle that I'm familiar with (ICE) that something new (BEV). If i was buying a new F-150 today, it be ICE powered, not a Lightning.

It doesn't help the stock price when the Elon sells $24 billion dollars of Tesla stock to fund his purchase of Twitter. Elon is his worst enemy. Investors like stability in a CEO, not some guy who is acting like a spoiled rich kid not knowing how to spend his money.

I never warmed up to the 71-73 Bunkie Knudsen Mustang (to me, they were too big, heavy and ungainly), but you can't argue with the success of the Mustang II. Absolutely perfect timing coming out on the heels of the first gas crisis. Sales went from 135,000 (1973) to 386,000 (1974).

I imagine Ford has identified what the Bronco "DNA" is, and will keep that basic style in the years going forward. Jeep, Mustang, etc., have all done the same thing.

Both Farley and Mark Reuss have suggested that hydrogen has a place in HD trucks (e.g. F-350).

Cheaper mousetrap. Sounds like Toyota's current BEV's cost much more to assemble the Tesla's. So they're redesigning their BEV's to be cheaper to build.

This is from a few day's ago. Toyota is rethinking their EV strategy AGAIN, probably delaying some future EV programs. https://www.carscoops.com/2022/12/toyota-delaying-ev-program-to-implement-tesla-beating-tech-report-claims/

Autoline suggested, just a theory, that Stellantis may be making the Belvedere plant a bargaining chip in next year's UAW contract negotiations. What will the UAW give up to keep this plant open?

Yep. https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1134753_ford-patents-trisected-tailgate-takes-aim-at-gm-and-ram

$3.15/gallon in northern Michigan.

You're missing the point. Ford profited greatly by selling full-size, rear-wheel drive vehicles to all those WW2 generation folks who wanted a full-sized car, not a down-sized FWD car they we're being forced into. I personally know of several dyed-in-the-wool Buick owners who bought a Grand Maquis or Town Car once Buick discontinued the Roadmaster. This goes back to Kirby's point that the same thing will happen during the BEV/ICE transition. There is probably a sizeable segment of the population that wants nothing to do with BEV's and will drive an ICE powered vehicle as long as they can.

Same thing happened back in the mid-90's when GM discontinued their full-size, body-on-frame vehicles (Chevy Caprice, Buick Roadmaster, etc.). People who still wanted a conventional full-size vehicle moved to the Crown Vic, Grand Marquis and Town Car. Panther-platform sales (profitably) continued on until 2012.

From today's Detroit Free Press. And in a shocking development, not one of these Super-Duties are a BEV. "The Dearborn automaker shattered a sales record for the month of November after reaching a record-setting pace of 52,518 new orders for the 2023 Super Duty pickup in the last five days of October, when it averaged more than 10,000 trucks a day, according to monthly sales data. But the November sales report nearly triples that figure. Ford now has orders for 151,870 Super Duty trucks since the order bank opened Oct. 27, the company revealed Friday. "The demand is just insane," said Todd Dunn, president of UAW Local 862, whose members build the vehicle at the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville. "A lot of people love those vehicles for farms, hauling. It's a beast." These are not reservations; these are orders placed through Ford car dealerships on behalf of actual customers who have decided to purchase the vehicle." https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2022/12/03/latest-ford-super-duty-orders-set-insane-pace/69695780007/

You seem to have a knack for getting into focus groups. Not your first one, if I remember correctly. Location?

Probably not, I think mileage really wouldn't matter when it comes to fuel injectors. It's more related to how many times they open and close. Injectors can last an insanely long time. Still running factory originals in my 28 year old F-150.

15 years on the injectors.

Owning the engine in question, I'm absolutely okay with the solution Ford came up with. My fuel injectors are okay, and to change them "just because" is foolish. If the injectors were to somehow spontaneously crack (not even sure how that is possible) the software will warn me of a fuel pressure drop and advise me to get service. I did notice that Ford is now extending the warranty on these fuel injectors to 15 years. I was going to contact my dealer tomorrow, but will put that off until I get the recall notice.

As mentioned, I own a Bronco Sport with this engine. I got to say again how easy it is to visibly check the fuel injectors. They're right up top and facing the radiator. You can literally get your eyes within a few inches of the injectors. I put on my old-man glasses, grabbed a flashlight, and checked out the injector and fuel rail. Bone dry as the Sahara Desert. No odor of gas, no visible seepage, and no signs of old gas (gas leaves a residue when it dries) on any surface. For me, I'm not going to worry about it. For others who own a vehicle with this engine, I encourage to look for yourself. It's easy, and will give you peace of mind, or alert you as to a possible problem. As for a house fire, we live in rural northern Michigan and burn wood. I stand a greater chance of a having a chimney fire than having a fire caused by our Bronco Sport.

No need for that. Just checked the injectors. Easy to do, they're right up front and easy to see. They look like they just left the factory. Not even a hint of any possible leakage. Which doesn't surprise me, since we're only talking 20 cases over 634,000 vehicles.

I'm affected by this (2021 Bronco Sport), so I'm paying attention. For now, I'm concerned, but not overly worried. We're taking 20 reported fires over 634,000 vehicles. I wonder if the vendor supplied faulty injectors? I'll be checking my fuel injectors this afternoon and calling my dealer Monday morning.

Just a guess, but different fuel injectors?

You make a compelling argument, but I still think dealers can be an asset, especially short term. But no doubt things are going to change, no matter what your point of view is.

Surprised that the city and local power utility can't accommodate this dealer. Every dealer, no matter the manufacturer, will be selling EV's at some point and will need additional power. So will all the dealers in your town shut down?